Siege of Bethulia

The Siege of Bethulia occurred in 650 BC when an Assyrian army under King Ashurbanipal's general Holofernes besieged the town of Bethulia in northern Judah.

Background
In 656 BC, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal went to war with the Median king Phraortes, and he assembled a large army. However, the nations of Cilicia, Damascus, Lebanon, Judah, and Egypt refused to send troops to join his army, so, after defeating Phraortes in 651 BC, he sent his right-hand man Holofernes to bring an army of 120,000 infantry and 12,000 mounted archers with him to punish the rebellious vassal states.

In 650 BC, the Assyrian army ravaged Libya and Lydia, plundered the Ishmaelites who lived to the south of the Chelleans, destroyed all of the hilltop cities along the Abron River in Mesopotamia, killed all of the Cilicians who resisted him, surrounded and crushed the Midianites in northern Arabia, killed all of the young men of Damascus and destroyed their agriculture, and intimidated the Phoenician city-states into submitting to Assyrian society. Holofernes stationed garrisons in Phoenicia and gathered local men as allied soldiers, and he proceeded to march on Judah and encamp at Esdraelon, near Dothan.

As King Manasseh of Judah was in Assyrian captivity, the leader of Judah at the time was High Priest Joakim, who had the hilltops of Kona, Beth Horon, Belmain, Jericho, Choba, Aesora, and the Valley of Salem fortified and the mountain passes at Bethulia and Betomesthaim seized to prevent the Assyrians from invading Judah. The Judeans' insistence on preparing for battle surprised Holofernes, who asked his Ammonite mercenary commander Achior why the Jews were preparing for battle. Achior told him of the Jews' history, and he advised Holofernes against attacking the Jews, as he was afraid that God was on their side, and would put the Assyrians to shame. Holofernes responded by mocking Achior and having him bound up and delivered to the foot of a hill in front of Bethulia, where the town magistrates Uzziah ben Micah, Chabris ben Gothoniel, and Charmis ben Melchiel found Achior, unbound him, praised him for standing up to Holofernes' arrogance, and gave him shelter at Uzziah's home.

Start of the siege
The next day, Holofernes ordered his whole army and its allies to break camp and move against Bethulia, and to seize the passes up into the hill country and make war on the Israelites. The 170,000 Assyrian and allied infantry and 12,000 cavalry, together with the baggage and the foot soldiers handling it, encamped in the valley near Bethulia, beside the spring, and they spread out in breadth over Dothan as far as Balbaim and in length from Bethulia to Cyamon, facing Esdraelon. The Israelites were greatly terrified of the Assyrians, and the men took up their weapons and remained on guard all night. On the second day, Holofernes led out all his cavalry in full view of the Israelites in Bethulia, examining the approaches to the city and sending guards to the springs which supplied water to the city. All the chieftains of Esau's people and the leaders of the Moabites and the Phoenicians came to Holofernes, asking for him to not fight against the Jews in a battle array, instead having him remain in his camp to avoid the Israelites attacking from the mountains. The allied forces took possession of the springs along the mountains, planning to have the Israelites, their wives, and their children waste away with famine before the sword would reach them. Holofernes was pleased, so he sent the Ammonites and 5,000 Assyrians to encamp in the valley and seize the water supply. The rest of the Assyrian army encamped in the plain, and their tents and supply trains spread out in great number.

For 34 days, the Assyrians besieged the city, and the vessels of water of the inhabitants of Bethulia ran empty. The city's cisterns also went dry, and they did not have enough water to drink their fill for a single day. Children lost heart, and women and young men fainted from thirst and fell down in the streets of the city. The people of the city gathered about the magistrates of the city, saying that they had done the city people a great injury in not making peace with the Assyrians, claiming that God had sold the Judeans into their hands. The magistrates decided to compromise, saying that the city would surrender in five days if no help arrived.

Judith's plan
A local widow, Judith - renowned for her beauty and for her devotion to God - came to the town and spoke with the chief elders. She criticized them for seeking to test God and to perform his duties, as they had prayed to God for help, but then decided to surrender after five days without having faith in their salvation. Judith then volunteered to carry out a secret mission which would end the siege and bring victory to the Israelites, and the elders, without asking for details, allowed for her to leave the gates at night with her servant. The two of them were intercepted by an Assyrian patrol, who questioned her as to why she was walking outside of the city at night, and she claimed that she had information on a way by which Holofernes could capture all of the hill country without the loss of a man. The Assyrian soldiers, captivated by her beauty, decided to give her an escort of 100 men as she headed to meet Holofernes at his tent. Holofernes warmly greeted her, and Judith told him that she could set his throne in the midst of Jerusalem.

Beheading of Holofernes
She stayed in his tent for three days, and, on the fourth day, Holofernes held a banquet for his servants, and he had his eunuch Bagoas invite Judith, whom Holofernes sought to intoxicate and rape. However, Holofernes was said to have drank more that night than he had ever done on any other day of his life, and he passed out on his bed. Bagoas and the servants gave Judith privacy, believing that she would sleep with Holofernes. However, Judith retrieved Holofernes' sword from the mantle of his bed and twice hacked at his bed, severing it on the second blow. Judith then had her servant retrieve his head and place it in her food bag, and the two of them proceeded to return to Bethulia. Judith gathered the elders and showed them the head, having them present it on their parapets to demoralize the Assyrians. Achior nearly fainted after viewing the head, but he converted to Judaism upon seeing God's deliverance of the Jews.

Assyrian rout
Bagoas was shocked to discover Holofernes' headless body in his bed, and the Assyrian generals rent their tunics upon hearing that their commander was dead. The Assyrian soldiers impulsively routed and fled by every path across the plain and through the hill country, and the Assyrian allies who had encamped in the hills around Bethulia also fled. Uzziah then sent messengers to Betomastha′im, Bebai, Choba, Kola, and to all the frontiers of Israel to urge them to counterattack, and they cut down the Assyrians as far as Choba. In the Gilead and Galilee, the Assyrians were outflanked and greatly slaughterd, even beyond Damascus and its borders. The people of Bethulia then fell upon the Assyrian camp and plundered the vast quantity of booty. The Assyrians were forced to withdraw from the Levant, and Judah's independence was ensured. Judith would offer her spoils of war to God at the Temple in Jerusalem, and she composed a hymn before retiring to Bethulia, eventually dying at the age of 105, still a widow, and recognized as a Jewish hero.